Sunday, 30 August 2015

There's that perennial misnomer in the UK suggesting Americans do not get irony. While one gets why such a misguided Anglo assumption exists about the former colony that is the US, it probably has more to do with snobby British elitism and envy regarding a territory that was theirs but is no longer.

Now How To Dress Well's song and video for Precious Love (Thank You) must be rife with the self-knowing absurdity that lead singer Tom Krel emanates at every level. From the cheesy staging to the anachronistic singingstyle, Precious Love screams parody of the highest order. There is no way any of this pantomime is being played for real;Krel's tongue has to be locked firmlyin cheek.

There is, however, the danger that all of this is an earnest paean to Krel's shocking sense of self-importance, but that would just be embarrassing to all involved. I mean, who'd even call themselves 'How To Dress Well' and do it with a straight face?

Monday, 17 August 2015

Blimey, the music video for The Maccabees new track Something Like Happiness has been out for a month, though it’s taken that long for it to seep in and for me to finally declare it song of the summer. This was that one track one would spark up upon hearing it play on the radio, the perfect song for long journeys in the car cutting through the motorways and byways of England. This song is summer 2015 to me.

The Maccabees had a fraught time recording this track, with the band describing the process as “painful, tricky and traumatic.” The music video is directed by Joe Connor who shot it in the band’s base in south London’s Elephant & Castle, a part of the world that may rank among its most dourly depressing locations. Conner’s vision was to upgrade Elephant & Castle’s normalcy, to “make the mundane seem amazing, the grotesque beautiful and the forgotten prominent.”

Consider it a success because both song and video hit all the right marks.

Monday, 10 August 2015

Alanna McArdle Is the lead singer of sensational Welsh alternative band Joanna Gruesome, a rock group so fast rising that to be on board is a passport to inevitable global infamy. It is, therefore, totally bizarre that McArdle issued a statement last month saying: “Lately, my mental health problems have become a lot worse and I've gone through a pretty shitty time … so I won't be singing in Joanna Gruesome anymore.”

It seems, however, that her recovery process is in full swing as McArdle’s wounded vocals feature on Bristolian group Trust Fund’s new song Dreams. Trust Fund will be playing gigs across the UK this year while the remaining members and new recruits of Joanna Gruesome are touring North America throughout the rest of 2015. It seems majorly rock’n’roll for McArdle to have thrown in the towel at the height of prospective transatlantic fame, though, it seems her priority right now is to be part of something that makes her happy.

Sunday, 2 August 2015

Our kid Jon Robb in a recent radio interview with the BBC on New Order’s thirty-two year anniversary Power, Corruption and Lies talked about British northerners’ affinity to New York, saying that it essentially boils down to the fact that if you squeezed Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Hull together you basically get the Big Apple. This special relationship is perhaps best demonstrated through the powerhouse music cultures of these territories. Fronteers, an exciting new indie group fresh on the scene, furthers this potent music culture analogy.

Fronteers is a young band from east Yorkshire, a group of 19-year-old lads with a common interest in girls, guitars and their local football team. They’re releasing Youth through a boutique singles label called Human Music; however, it’s been a canny strategy because on the strength of this track the UK music industry is falling over each other to sign these kids up for a major album release.

Fronteers are perhaps a gang of white guys with guitars that may reappraise the dwindling fortunes of home grown alternative music, fuelling a sound that’s rife with classic Merseybeat riffs and of the moment boyish charm. It’s innately transatlantic, though, stubbornly parochial at heart.